Dog kennels.

[Furyous]

How do you choose a decent kennel ?

One thats going to look after your pooch correctly and not feed it Tesco value meat and punch it repeatedly as Soon as you reach the top of their drive ?

My local vet has stopped giving recommendations for kennels for some weird reason.

Ive been to a number of different kennels in the course of my work, and they all basically look the same.

The owners all sing pretty much the same tune as far as care etc goes.

Id like to have the option of going away for a week or two in the near future, and have never had to kennel my dogs before.

So, just how do you decide who to give your pooches to ?

[Jasandjules]

I have a friend (or have had a family member) come over to our place whilst we are away to stay with the dogs and to ensure they get walked etc... and company.

[Thevet]

It's difficult to recommend a kennels via your business as any of them can have faults and what suits one person may not suit another, we gave up recommending due to this and some of our clients asking why we did not recommend them. Go and look at the local kennels, ask friends what they thought, if the kennels look clean, tidy and comfortable, with motivated and caring staff, you probably won't go too far wrong.

[becksW]

As The Vet has pretty much said. The kennels should be happy for you to visit. They should be interested in what you feed your pet, they may be happy to get the food in unless your dog is on a specialised diet. Check the exercise area, check how they deal with situations if a vet is needed, ask if they'd be happy to take on dogs who need medicating (some kennels have ex vet nurses) Ask fellow dog walkers where they take their dogs.

1 kennels had a great reputation sadly they sold to someone else who insited on feeding the dogs some weird home made chicken meal. As a result we saw many dogs come in with upset stomachs etc, they really went downhill.

I've worked in 3 practices and have never been allowed to recommend a kennels because we hadn't visited them personally, the come back should anything go wrong is too risky these days!